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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/go-chi/chi/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

chi is distributed as a standard Go module and requires no external dependencies beyond the Go standard library. Installation is a single go get command, and the module integrates cleanly into any existing Go project that uses Go modules (go.mod).

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Requirements

chi v5 targets the four most recent major Go releases and currently requires Go 1.23 or later. Check your installed version with: 
go version
If you need an older Go version, chi v4 (github.com/go-chi/chi) supports earlier releases, but v5 is strongly recommended for all new projects.

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Install

Inside your Go module project directory, run: 
go get github.com/go-chi/chi/v5
This downloads chi, adds it to your go.mod, and writes the resolved checksum to go.sum. After the command completes, your go.mod will contain:
go.mod
module your/module/name

go 1.23

require github.com/go-chi/chi/v5 v5.0.12
If your project does not yet have a go.mod file, initialize one first with go mod init your/module/name, then run the go get command above.

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Zero external dependencies

chi pulls in no third-party packages. Every feature — the router, the middleware package, URL parameter parsing — is implemented using the Go standard library only. You can verify this after installation: 
go mod graph
The output will list only github.com/go-chi/chi/v5 with no transitive dependencies. This keeps your build reproducible and your go.sum minimal.
Because chi has no external dependencies, you can also vendor it with go mod vendor and the resulting vendor/ directory will contain only chi’s own source files.

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Import path

Once installed, import chi and its middleware sub-package in your Go source files:
main.go
import (
    "github.com/go-chi/chi/v5"
    "github.com/go-chi/chi/v5/middleware"
)

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Upgrading from v4 to v5

chi v5 introduced Go module Semantic Import Versioning (SIV). The only breaking change between v4 and v5 is the import path — the entire public API is identical. 
import (
    "github.com/go-chi/chi"
    "github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware"
)
To migrate an existing project:
1

Get chi v5

go get github.com/go-chi/chi/v5
2

Update all import paths

Use your editor’s find-and-replace, or run the following command to update all Go files at once:
find . -name "*.go" -exec sed -i \
  's|github.com/go-chi/chi"|github.com/go-chi/chi/v5"|g;
   s|github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware|github.com/go-chi/chi/v5/middleware|g' {} +
3

Remove the old v4 dependency

go mod tidy
go mod tidy will drop the github.com/go-chi/chi (v4) entry from go.mod and go.sum once no import paths reference it anymore.
4

Verify the build

go build ./...
If the build succeeds with no errors, the migration is complete. No functional changes to your handlers, middleware, or routing logic are required.
Do not import both github.com/go-chi/chi (v4) and github.com/go-chi/chi/v5 in the same binary — the types are distinct and handlers from one version cannot be passed to a router from the other. Run go mod tidy after updating all import paths to ensure only the v5 module remains.

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Optional ecosystem packages

After installing the core router, you can add any of chi’s first-party companion packages the same way — each is an independent module with its own versioning: 
# CORS middleware
go get github.com/go-chi/cors

# JWT authentication
go get github.com/go-chi/jwtauth/v5

# Structured HTTP logging
go get github.com/go-chi/httplog/v2

# Rate limiting
go get github.com/go-chi/httprate
The full list of official chi ecosystem packages is maintained at https://github.com/go-chi.

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